Perfectly Imperfect
by skyesbeenabadbadgrrl
Summary: (embry imprint story) Ava Valera and Embry Call have both had silent crushes on each other since she moved to La Push in 8th grade. It's senior year now, and thanks to events in Ava's life, she's now considered one of the 'bad girls'. Embry has his own secret. When he imprints on her, will they become two perfectly imperfect halves of a whole? Or will it all go to hell for them?
1. When A Wolf Imprints

_: Introduction :_

_When I moved to La Push, I was literally nothing. My social life was non existent. I really didn't get asked out much and I was the dorky ugly kid. And then around my freshman __year, it happened. That time old cliché, the one where the ugly duckling turns into a swan. I started dating a guy on the La Push High football team, my braces came off, my acne cleared up._

_It really seemed like my life at that point, as cliché as this sounds, couldn't honestly get any better. But then the boyfriend started to show his true colors and I had to make a choice... _

_Common senses and sadly, personal experiences taught me that if a guy hits you one time, then he'll do it again the second he gets a chance.. And if he cheats once, he'll do it over and over. See, my dad's a bit of an alcoholic and before my mom died, he put her through hell. Now that she's gone, he regrets it, but every now and then, I catch the bad end of his temper. _

_So, I stepped back and reevaluated my life as it was then, and my relationship with this guy.. And I got the hell out. I put up with enough of the abuse and stuff the little I do get it at home, and frankly? ..I wasn't so airheaded and vapid that I was desperately trying to cling to this newfound font of luck I'd stumbled into for whatever reason. Instead, I got my revenge, - in the typical overdramatic and cliché teenage girl ways- and I got the hell out._

_And in the process, I learned just how real my 'friends' were, just how fast people would turn on you, just how little it took for the average teenager to be swayed to turn against one of their own. Because the boyfriend decided to be a dick and get his revenge for me breaking up with him by setting out to purposely ruin me in any way possible.. He destroyed my reputation, he managed to turn my so called friends against me, and he told anyone who would listen that I was lying about him and who he really was.. But I didn't care.  
_

_I think I spent the rest of my high school career on the outside again, ditching the good girl image since I'd already been stripped of it (even when yes, I was and am still a virgin, kids can really be so fucking mean and stupid), and ya know what? It felt so much better than being on the inside. I stopped giving a shit about what anyone thought, hell, I started giving people a reason to talk about me._

_What I was not expecting was for this year, my senior year, to be by far the most interesting one I've had so far. I wasn't expecting to walk back into La Push High and right into the sights of Embry Call, one of the 'cult members'._

_But that's exactly what happened._

_Looking back,_ _I really don't see how I ever thought 9th grade was my lucky break. I don't see how I could have been stupid enough to think that what I had before I lost it all was really that great. My life now is perfectly imperfect, and I couldn't be happier._

_Anywho, suppose I should shut the hell up and get on with my story, huh?_

Chapter 01 – When A Wolf Imprints

"Class, if you'll look around, you'll notice that I've taken the liberty of arranging the desks into pairs. The person in the desk next to yours will be your partner for the year. Any lab project we do, any team assignments we do, you will work together with this person." the teacher droned on. Embry sat in his desk, pretending to listen while trying not to fall asleep, again when the door opened.

His head snapped up almost as soon as the scent hit his nostrils and he groaned inwardly when he realized that everyone in the classroom, of course, had already paired off but him. All he could really focus on, of course, was the girl who's scent he'd just gotten bombarded by. It was almost like she was the absolute center of his universe like nothing else but her mattered.

Ava made her way to the teacher's desk and sat the excuse down, tapping her boot clad foot impatiently against the lineoleum of the classroom floor, popping little bubbles with the piece of gum she was chewing as covertly as possible while her eyes flickered around the classroom in vague disinterest.

"You may take the empty seat next to Mr. Call, Ms. Valera. It's a pleasure to have you joining us today.. I do hope that next time you'll make an effort to make it on time." the teacher said with a smug look as Ava rolled her eyes and shoved the signed excuse back into her black spiral bound notebook, behind a picture of herself and her older brother Dante.

She flopped into the seat, and said nothing, instead, she looked around, then slid out a pair of hot pink earphones, slid them into her ears, opened her Biology book. The less she talked to any of these hypocritical assholes the better off she was, at least that's how she felt about things and had since the middle of freshman year.

Embry couldn't help but watch her, amazed by her every movement. A piece of balled up paper hit him in the head and looking around, he realized it'd been thrown by Quil and it was most likely a note.

He unballed the paper, eyes scanning over it, his ears straining to try and figure out what she was listening to while she scribbled in the black heavily stickered notebook, carefully keeping it hidden from view. He deduced that true to Ava Valera form, seeing as how she was one of the 'bad kids', it was some heavy metal band, Godsmack, and then he turned his attention to the note and it's question, pondering how he'd answer it..

"Did you just seriously imprint Ava Valera?" it read as he looked over at Quil, gave him a dirty look as he coughed, covertly nodded his head yes before scribbling it down, throwing the note back at Quil.

Quil opened the letter and then yelped victoriously, happy for his friend, drawing a few raised brows from his peers before leaning in, passing the news along to Seth and Jared, nodding his head at Ava Valera, probably one of the more infamous 'wild girls' at La Push High.

Nobody really remembered what she'd done or how this came to be, but it'd been going on since 9thgrade, and she didn't seem to care, really. She really didn't get close to anyone, she really didn't talk to many people or go out of her way to make friends with anyone.

She was, for the most part, probably the prime example of teenage rebellion and hostility.

All the pack really did know about her was that she lived in probably the worst part of the res with her father and an older brother Dante who was always in and out of county lock up for one thing or another. She liked to fight, and she thrived on making people uncomfortable, seeing as how she really had no honest to god sensor.

"Oh man.. This is gonna be entertaining." Seth mused as Quil nodded and said "It's damn sure not gonna be pretty. Embry's so quiet, shy.. Ava's just.."

"Wild? Tempermental? Snarky?" Jared guessed as Kim spoke up and said quietly, "Maybe she's not that bad when you get to know her."

Quil's brow quirked as he sat studying Embry and Ava, Embry's completely unsuspecting imprint. "Stop staring, Quil." Seth hissed as Quil nodded and Jared said quietly, "Is he even going to talk to her, or is he just going to sit there staring like an ass?"

"I'll take stare like an ass for 20 bucks." Quil said as Jared palmed a 20 and slid it into the pockets of his track pants.

Embry couldn't think. He had no idea what to do or even say, and her scent was driving him straight to the edge of distraction. ' And naturally, I would imprint on the girl I've had a crush on since 8th grade. Who just happens to hate, well.. everybody.'

Ava rubbed her neck, looked around and bit her lip as her eyes met with the chocolate brown eyes of Embry Call, who she'd had a crush on since 8thgrade also. A very, very silent crush. She raised a brow, poked out her tongue and dropped her gaze, coughing a little as her cheeks heated.

Then she reminded herself that guys were pretty much all the same, if not worse. And that the look he was giving her only got her into serious shit last time she fell for it.

She was STILL suffering the fallout from falling last time, even now, almost about to graduate. Another good reason she couldn't wait to get the hell away from Washington and all of the judgemental assholes who lived in it.

She still felt the sensation of being stared at and looked up, nudged Embry.

Embry jumped as she nudged him and then asked, "Huh?"

"Do you mind maybe not staring so damn hard? It's kinda creepy." Ava mused as she looked at him, head tilted slightly in curiousity as she twisted a light brown strand of curly hair around her fingertip, popped a bubble with her gum.

"Sorry."

She didn't even let him say the word, she simply looked down as if not interested in conversing with him any farther.

The song playing changed to Paramore and Embry tapped her, leaned in and asked, "You like Paramore?"

Ava simply shrugged and looked down again. A few minutes later, he felt a poke to his shoulder and turning, he looked at her. "What?" Ava bit her lower lip and then said quietly, "Nothing, nevermind." as she turned her attention back to her doodles, listening to Paramore and basically being your average pain in the ass troublemaker of a teen girl.

She'd been dying to ask him about the cult, she'd always wondered if it were true, or it was just a rumor, much like the rumors that made her who she supposedly was now.. But she had this feeling that it wasn't a good idea to ask.

But she had seen him with them, not that she'd been watching or anything.. A lot, actually. She'd seen him with the other 'cult' members a lot over the summer. And she was just curious as to how one would actually agree to join a cult.

She stared at him a few moments and then the bell rang, she got up and practically raced from the classroom, down the hallway, jumping onto the back of her friend Rae, the bassist in their band, The Pink Skulls.

"You were on fire last night. I told you Misery Business was your song, girl!" Rae squeaked as Ava climbed down, caught Embry watching her from nearby out of the corner of her eyes, biting her lower lip before nodding and saying, "Yeah. I think I wanna keep that song in the lineup. You totally need to try Sunday Morning."

Embry watched her with her friend, smiling to himself a little. For the most part, he was still basking in the fact that he'd finally imprinted.. On a girl he'd had a crush on since 8thgrade, but he'd been too shy to make a move for.

The pokes and taps of his friends got him to zone back into reality and he looked in her direction one last time, only to find her gone.

"So? How'd it go?"

"Apparently my staring creeps her out." Embry muttered as Jared laughed and said "Kim said that to me too. C'mon, stud.. We need to get to a council meeting, remember?"

"Yeah.. How the hell could I forget." Embry muttered as he watched the girls run past him, Ava on the back of another girl he thought was named Lori, apparently off to Lori's house in Forks, they practiced there.

Not that he stalked her or anything.. She was a really loud talker, and you couldn't help but hear her when she said things. He just happened to remember them.

"So.. You imprinted on the wildest and craziest girl in our grade.. You do realize this is going to be an up hill battle, essentially.. Right?" Quil reminded his friend while looking at him in concern.

The sobering realization of just what lie ahead of Embry hit him and he groaned inwardly, swearing a little. He'd never been really good at the whole flirting or boy girl thing.. And Ava was notorious for being a hand full on her better days.. So the question remained.. Just how the hell was he supposed to pull this one off?

He shrugged and remembered something he'd read somewhere once, a quote and said quietly to Quil, "Nothing worth having is ever actually easy to get. I'll figure something out." as they piled into Jared's mom's car, left for the tribal council meeting.

He did know he needed some kind of game plan. And he did know that he needed to come up with it soon. This was their last year of high school, and he knew enough about Ava through watching her quietly since he'd developed a crush on her back in jr high, to know that she would most likely leave after graduation, if she wasn't given a good reason to stay.

He literally had the space of a few months to confess how he felt. The pressure was on, starting now.


	2. Wrath of A Tiny Pissed Quileute Girl

: The Wrath Of A Tiny Pissed Off Quileute :

She scowled as she turned the hallway and stopped in front of the locker to once again find the word SLUT scrawled across it in bright pink lipstick. Turning to the few people standing around, laughing quietly, she smirked and said "Wow, we're really mature, huh?" as she rolled her eyes, started to scrub at the word with the stretched out sleeve of her black and hot pink striped undershirt while swearing the entire time.

Apparently, Todd and his merry band of idiots were going to start their yearly 'Make Ava's live Hell' thing again. But this year, given several stressing factors at home, she'd quite frankly had it up to literally here with their shit. The voice spoke from behind her, quiet and almost calming and she turned around, smacked straight into him for probably the 3rd time this week.

Everywhere she went, it seemed like somehow, Embry Call wound up finding her. She scrunched up her nose as she looked at him with a raised brow and asked dryly, "And we meet again.. If I didn't know any better, Call, I'd swear you're stalking me." as she began the trudge down the hallway to find Todd, confront him about getting his whore of a girlfriend to do his dirty work.

"You look mad." Embry said as Ava stopped and smirking said, "Correction, Call.. This? It's not anger. It's fury. And a lucky bastard named Todd Miller and his stupid whore of a girlfriend Eve are just about to feel my wrath." as she ducked down a crowded hallway, thinking she'd escape Embry and his questions.

"What'd he do?" Embry asked as he caught up to her yet again. She groaned and rolled her eyes in annoyance. Of course, he was one of them.. One of the 'golden boys' that little cult everybody whispered about, so naturally, he'd have his head up his ass where her reputation was concerned.

"Let's just say his girlfriend's got it in for me for some unknown reason.. She's easily led and Todd's got her thinking and stupidly that I actually still like his insignificant ass.. So she takes pride in leaving little artistic opinions of me on my locker in shitty pink dime store lipstick. And today? She clearly fucked with the wrong girl." Ava said as she spotted her target, the target of all of her rage in the hallway with all of his idiot friends, all of her bimbo giggling morons. Ava's old friends, Ava's old life. Not that it bothered her now, but it had for a long time. The damage done to her by Todd had taken at least half of her high school experience to recover from. And now she was just plain fed up with it all.

Embry studied her quietly, his hands shoved in his pockets, processing what she told him, wondering if he should step in or not. Something told him that given past run ins over the course of this last week that he'd had with her, stepping in might not be a good idea.

She had nothing if not a vicious temper.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Embry asked as Ava shrugged and said quietly, "Doesn't matter if it's a good idea or not, Call.. All I care about is making myself feel better. Making her look like the ass. What the hell are you, my conscience?"

"No, it's just.." he started, only to groan when she'd walked away and then up, tapped the girl standing next to Todd on the shoulder. She turned around and said something Embry couldn't quite make out but whatever it was must have pissed Ava off because the next thing Embry knew, Ava was slamming the girl against a locker and digging through the girls purse with one hand. She crowed in triumph when she held up the lipstick and then she smirked as she wrote something on the other girls body in lipstick.

Shoving the other girl down, Ava looked at Todd and asked innocently, "Well? Aren't you going to pick her up? I mean it was your fault this happened to the poor stupid girl." as she shoved through the crowd and walked back down the hallway, smirking to herself.

Embry ran to catch up and then said "Feel better?"

"Not as good as I woulda had I punched her hard enough to break something but it'll have to do. One more fight and my dad will.." Ava trailed off, biting her lower lip as she asked, "Why the hell do you keep doing this?"

"What?"

"Finding me? Why? Because if it's about the cult or whatever, I'm in a band dude. Takes up more than enough of my time." Ava said as Embry blinked and then asked, "Cult?"

"That thing with Uley.. Whatever his name is.. I see you guys cliff diving and you're always together." Ava mused as she gave him a smirk and then said "Relax. It's not a big deal or something." as she shoved through the crowd in the hallways, heading in the general direction of her homeroom. "I'm not like these other close minded assholes." she added as she studied him in curiousity. Why was he, of all guys, talking to her? Past experiences clearly pointed to him having some sort of fucked up agenda, and she wasn't sure if she liked waiting on the other shoe to drop.

"Does anything bother you?" Embry asked, still reeling from the fact that people were clearly so stupid they thought that there was a secret cult among the tribe. But today was the most she'd talked to him, he'd take it. He couldn't wait to tell the guys later, they could all laugh. He was concerned about the lack of concern she had for the word SLUT being written on her locker door. He could tell it bothered her, but she'd reacted and now she seemed to be fine.

Her eyes, however, he noted, told a completely different story. "So you're in a band?"

"Yeah, me and some girls from Forks High, Rae from here. The Pink Skulls. It's mostly cover songs and other bullshit." Ava said as she looked at him, curious.. Why was he even still talking to her? Did the guy not know that he was basically signing his own death warrant, socially?

The bell rang and she grumbled then said calmly, "I've gotta go.. But if you're smart, Call? You'll steer clear of me. I'm trouble. Everybody knows it." as she exited hastily into the door of a classroom, leaving him standing there, going back over the whole conversation, wondering what it was going to take to prove to her that he wasn't like any of the other guys here..

That he'd sort of liked, okay, loved and obsessed over her, for a really long time now, and his having imprinted on her only made that even stronger. He sighed and shaking his head made his own way into his classroom, sitting there only pretending to listen to anything said, while lost in thought.

Somehow, he had to unravel the mystery that was Ava Valera. Because she sure as hell wasn't going to volunteer anything willingly.

Ava sat in her classroom going back over everything she knew about Embry Call, trying to figure out what his agenda could possibly be where she was concerned, considering that girls were always giggling and flirting with him.. It made no sense.. Why her? Why the school troublemaker? The supposed slut of La Push High?

"Just give it a rest. Eventually he'll prove you right and be like the others." she mused as she nibbled on the end of her pen, took notes and counted the hours until she was out of this zoo for the day and safely in Rae's garage with a mic in her hand and a guitar strapped to her person.

Music was her escape. And unlike the rest of her peers, she'd grown up too fast, so she knew that in a few years? Nothing they did in high school would really make a damn to the outside world. Because life had a way of kicking your ass, and quite often.

But it did eat at her though.. Why would the boy she'd had a crush on since moving here FINALLY notice her now? There had to be a hidden agenda in there somewhere.


End file.
